Different morning waking times

[Mrsv4]

How do you implement EASY when DD wakes and eats at different times every morning???  For example, last week she woke up atr 6:30 to eat and we would start our day.  Her next feed would be around 10:15.  Now today, she woke up at 5:15 to eat, and then went back to sleep until 8am, but wasn't ready to eat until around 9am.  That's a hour 15min difference from day to day???  Now I thought maybe I could wake her at the same time every morning, say around 7.  But if I do this she still won't eat until she's ready (3-4hours since last feed), and then we'll run into the problem of her next feed time being during her nap time???  Just wondering how you get around this??

[teezee]

yes you would wake her at the same time every morning. why won't she eat first thing in the morning? is she taking feed at night - if so how many? and when is the last one? how old is your lo?

[Mrsv4]

DD is almost 4 1/2months old.  She started sleeping through the night at 7 weeks (9pm-6am), but started waking up once around 2:30am to eat around 12 weeks.  Now the last few days she has been waking up at around 10:30-11 pm to eat (goes to bed at 7:30ish), again at 2:30 then again somewhere between 5-6:30.  So if she ate at 6 she's just not hungry at 7 and will not eat.

[Shdef]

Well, there is more than one way to tackle this.

Choose an acceptable time that is not night-time anymore, say like 6.30. Everything before that you treat like a night-time feed with very little stimulation (mo light, no change, no eye-contact, no talking).

If she wakes up say 5 am, you feed her and then put her back to bed awake until it's an acceptable time to wake up. If it's past 7, you can wake her up.

We tried that but what we got was Mr. Grumpy Sausage so we now let him sleep as long as he wants, but don't start the day before 6.30. Everything before that is night-time.

Now he sometimes wakes up at 6.30, sometimes at 7 and sometimes at 7.30. That changes the whole day but works for us anyway. We just stick to Eat, Activity and Sleep but not really to the time and he is the happiest baby you can have.

I mean... if I am hungry at 7 and wake up and the next day it's 6.30 I don't force myself to stay in bed either. And sometimes we sleep longer and sometimes we don't. Depending on the baby's temper an strict schedule can be very good. For our angel baby it isn't.

I would just try both...

[teezee]

i can only add that maybe you want to limit the last night feeding to say half a feeding to start with, and then slowly try holding lo off 10 or 15 min at a time until you guys can reach the desired wake up time? at least when lo wakes you will be able to give some kind of a feeding right now, and then hopefully with time a full feeding. that i am sure would help your day go a little bit smoother with easy. btw is your lo on 4 hr easy now? how are the rest of the daytime feeds? when lo's don't take a good morning feed it indicates to me that they are getting too many calories at night (i went through this but i let it go on for way too long). if you could post your routine it would be a big help.

[Mrsv4]

Well our routine changes day to day depending on what time DD wakes in the am.  Here's what it went like yesterday:
 E-6:30am
A-until 8:15
S-8:30-9:05 (only 35min-we're working on these short naps)
A 9:05-1015
E10:15
A until 1050
S 10:55 -11:40 (45min)
A11:40-13:05
E13:05
S1330-14:00 (30min)
A1400-1600
E 1600
S 16:20-1705 (35min)
A 1705-1840 (bath, read books)
S1850
E 2240
E 0100 (light feed then didn't go back to sleep until 0140)
E 0515
Then back to bed until 8am.  As you can see it's a very modified EASY.  The Y time is almost non-existent.  I thought we were making progress with short naps.  Last week at least one of her naps everyday was 1 hr 10min-1 hr 30min.  Then Saturday hit and she's been waking up more at night, naps have been real short.  I should mention too that she had her immunizations last week, she's teething, and I'm not sure if the eating more often is a growth spurt or a sign she needs more than just breastmilk.  She's a big girl 17lbs 4oz, and everyone keeps telling me to start her on cereal, I'm just not sure about it yet.

[teezee]

i would definately forgo the cereal idea until at least 6 months as it may create even more problems for you concerning tummy aches, gas, etc. at this point.

to me it looks as if maybe your lo is overtired as she really isn't getting all that much daytime sleep.  her short naps could also have to do with overtiredness - as it doesn't seem like she is able to get through her sleep cycles.  have you tried putting her down for a nap a little sooner in the am? it is very important to have lo on 4 hr easy (which u pretty much do) but when going through problems like this don't wait until the 'usual' time you would put her down for a nap, more importantly read her signs if she gets up early. in essence - if easy turns into aeasy then so be it! it's still a routine and that's the most important thing...tracy supports having a routine, clock watching is definately not necessary - especially when trying to get lo on track. i hope i have been clear...i'm rushing a little cuz lo is definately ready for bed herself! good luck and let me know how things are going or if u have any more ?'s.

[Mrsv4]

I posted this in the naps forum, but i thought i'd post here too to update you guys.
Something else I'm confused about  .  Yesterday DD woke up at 8am, by 9:15 she was showing signs of being tired, so I tryed putting her down for a nap.  NO WAY would she go to sleep.  I tryed everything.  In the end she was up until 12:30 (4 1/2 hours) without a nap.  We finally got her down for a nap at 12:30 and she slept 1 1/2 hours?  From everything I've read, overtired babies don't sleep as well.  In addition, she slept better last night than she has in weeks.  Went 9 hours without waking up.  Today she again woke up at 8.  I put her down for a nap at 9:50am and she only slept 25min.  I was able to coax her back to sleep for another 10min and that was it.  So, 35min total.  I didn't put her down for another nap until about 1:15pm (almost 2 1/2 hours since her last nap - and she was obviously tired) and she slept 1 hour 15min!!!  Do some babies just go against the rule?

[teezee]

all lo's are different it may work for your lo...but it also could be a fluke and getting lo more overtired than before.  obviously lo wasn't tired when she wouldn't sleep past 25 min - maybe try keeping her up 15min to half hr longer and that may be your solution...but 4 1/2 i wouldn't try that again as lo will become very overtired.  with my dd, there were some days when she was small we were out and about and she would have 1 long nap instead of three naps and i would be banging my head thinking that it was gonna be a horrible night to find out she slept better than usual...try it again the next night or a couple night's later and you guessed it - pushed my luck a little too far - and it backfired.  you can try certainly anything you would like - and if it works for you that's great - but keep a keen eye out for any regressions as they may not show up immediately...congrats on the naps though and better night...hope things continue!